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Locked room mystery?

Locked room mystery?

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Locked Room Mystery

It’s my birthday and we’re doing a Locked Room Game Mystery thing this week. Woohoo! Also there will be more board games, and time off work, so time to play them. It’s like a mini-Christmas! So many exclamation points! I’m pretty sure the Epic Card game Kickstarter landed as well, and Aileen has been hiding it as an additional ‘birthday present’. I hope?

Speaking of Kickstarters, as I did last week as well, I saw the superlative mobile app/game Space Team (download now if you have never played it, it’s hilarious) is soon to be a card game, via Kickstarter. Not entirely sure how well the game will play as a physical item, but willing to hold judgement until I try it. All it needs to do to be a good implementation is to be funny, chaotic and make people shout at other people under the guise of “cooperating”.

However, one of the pledge levels for the game is a ‘NSFW’ deck. This I’m perfectly willing to pass judgement on. This adult humour gimmick is the worst legacy of ‘Cards Against Humanity’, and amounts to nothing more than an unfortunate trend that adds nothing of substance to games or game play. Hopefully it’s a trend that won’t last long. Cards Against Humanity is not as funny as Apples to Apples. Apples to Apples works because the humour comes from the players, not the cards. That’s what a game should aim for.

Happy birthday! 🙂 Wish you the Epic Card game as a secret present 😀 Locked (or Escape) rooms are getting pretty popular here too (like 3 different on one street..). We’ve been once. It was interesting, but not too spectacular.

Epic was indeed a secret present. Hooray! Reading the rules is next on my to-do list after coffee and lunch. Quite excited, it looks fantastic -gorgeous artwork, and loads of dinosaurs on the cards. Aileen is delighted!

Ben Thorp

So jealous! Am hoping to take our games group to the local Escape Room, but they’re a bit pricey and it requires organisation 🙁

Oh, Happy Birthday 😉

I also saw Space Team, and think it could be very funny. I suspect that their NSFW option is less CAH and more Exploding Kittens (ie not particularly offensive, but a load of ridiculous innuendo). It could work in a game like this, because the primary purpose of the game is not to make funny things from the cards, but actually trying to complete the “mission”, and so having slightly risque words that people are shouting out won’t necessarily affect the actual gameplay all that much. Whereas in CAH the whole point of the game is to try and invoke a reaction with the cards you play.

In fairness, you probably have a very valid point about Space Team NSFW deck. Forcing people to shout out risque things as part of the game might actually add to it. Can’t help but feel it is going to become a gimmick that people will add to games for no good reason though.
Thanks for the birthday wishes Ben! Locked Room was great fun. Not too expensive, either, it amounted to about fifteen per person (between 4) which isn’t the worst.

Emily

Happy Birthday 🙂
It’s my boyfriends birthday this week too and we shall be celebrating by… you’ll never guess. Having a bunch of people over to play boardgames!
Enjoy your locked room.

I briefly considered backing the Space Team card game, but decided against it primarily because they decided to add an “adult” content deck. I’m all for extras, but deciding to throw in crude or offensive attempts at humor to flesh out the game just doesn’t sit right with me. The base game may very well be entertaining, but having an expansion targeted at a so-called “mature” audience really turned me off to the concept.

The locked room experience is interesting to me. There are a couple in our area and at least one that doesn’t involve an “escape from zombies” theme. I caught a couple peeks at the “Race to Escape” game show and that made it look more interesting, though the host regularly interjected with complete spoilers for the solutions instead of hints. I’d like to see more of it as it’s a neat concept, but less of the host interjecting with the solution during the show. Watching the teams slowly stress out or go on wild goose chases was entertaining.

Had never heard of ‘Race to Escape, but if there is a good Locked Room game in your area definitely give it a try. We found it to be a really enjoyable experience. There is a second room with a different theme, and we are already planning on going again.